Perry Gershon, a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge First District Representative Lee Zeldin in the midterm election, spoke to supporters at the Lily Pond Lane, East Hampton, residence of Loida Lewis on Saturday morning.

Mr. Gershon, who lives in East Hampton, told the gathering that polling indicates that he and Kate Browning are neck and neck in the race for the nomination, and that the other candidates – David Pechefsky, Elaine DiMasi, and Vivian Viloria-Fisher – trail them by a wide margin. He appealed to the guests at the gathering to vote for him in the June 26 primary and to encourage others to do so as well.

Mr. Gershon said that he believes he can appeal to unaffiliated and Independence Party voters in the district. “There are a lot of people who are unhappy with what Trump is doing to the country,” he said, noting that Mr. Zeldin, a Republican seeking a third term in Congress, is an ardent supporter of the president.

If Democrats are going to prevail in the midterm and 2020 presidential elections, they must bear “a message of hope and optimism,” he said. “I’m not going to miss that. And that’s how we get independent voters.”